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1 An international study co-led by CNIO identifies a ‘sensor’ that activates cell migrationhttps://www.cnio.es/en/news/publications/an-international-study-co-led-by-cnio-identifies-a-sensor-that-activates-cell-migration/
Mon, 11 Mar 2019 20:00:57 +0000https://www.cnio.es/?p=78783The cytoskeleton is a structure that not only helps cells maintain their shape and internal organisation, but also enables them to perform functions like movement and migration, that is to say, the movement that takes cells far from the place where they are initially located. Migration forms an essential part of the spread of cancer […]

]]>The cytoskeleton is a structure that not only helps cells maintain their shape and internal organisation, but also enables them to perform functions like movement and migration, that is to say, the movement that takes cells far from the place where they are initially located. Migration forms an essential part of the spread of cancer cells from the place where they first formed to another organ or tissue (metastasis). So far, this association is not fully understood: how is the mechanical force generated by the cytoskeleton transformed into a biochemical signal that controls cell migration? During his work at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO), Daniel Lietha (who has now moved to the Biological Research Center, CIB-CSIC) led an international study that has answered this question. He worked jointly with the teams headed by Hermann Gaub (Ludwig Maximilians University Munich, Germany) and Frauke Gräter (Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies, Germany). The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), has found that the protein FAK is one of the key molecules that respond to the forces generated by the cytoskeleton, activating biochemical signals regulating cell adherence and migration. These findings can help broaden the knowledge of how tumorinvasion and metastasis are initiated.

Focal adhesion kinase, or FAK, is present in the cytoskeleton and the cell anchorage to the components of its external surroundings. “It is a signaling molecule that is key in a structure activated by forces that are generated by the contraction of the actin filaments in the cytoskeleton,” explains Lietha, co-corresponding author of the study. “Until now, it was unclear whether FAK can act as a sensor to these forces required for cell movement. Based on the hypothesis that FAK is such a sensor, we carried out our study,” he adds.

A force activating cell movement

The researchers who took part in the study used atomic force spectroscopy to simulate the forces generated by the contraction of actin filaments in the cytoskeleton. They found that FAK changed as a response to these forces. One of these changes was related to the shape that FAK adopts when it activates the biochemical signaling involved in cell migration.

Atomic force spectroscopy is a technology that allows to study the behaviour of various specimens under force, from intact cells to single molecules. “Actually, we have used a specific configuration of this technology pioneered by Hermann Gaub’s team at the LMU, whose sensitivity and precision provide measurements of a single molecule with a high degree of accuracy”, says Lietha. Thanks to this technology, researchers have obtained detailed mechanical information on FAK which together with knowledge of its atomic structure, previously described by Lietha, can be interpreted in terms of how force induces changes in the structure to activate FAK. The Molecular Biomechanics group at HITS has simulated this process on high performance computers to obtain a fully dynamic view of these events. “We successfully uncovered key steps in FAK activation in great detail”, says group leader Frauke Gräter. “We could show that this signaling protein not only gets activated by force but also stays active while being further stretched out.”

The mechano-environment of a cell influences its behavior. The focal adhesion kinase acts as sensor for changes in the extracellular and intracellular framework. “In single-molecule atomic force microscopy experiments and steered molecular dynamics simulations, we could show a force-mediated opening of the auto-inhibitory complex of FAK and, consequently, the activation of the kinase,” describes Magnus Bauer, first author of the publication and graduate student in the group of Hermann Gaub at the LMU, the experimental approach in Munich. In cells, the mechano-activation of FAK is triggered upon stress between the cytoskeleton and the extracellular matrix. “With FAK it seems we found the first non-muscle enzyme to be directly activated by mechanical force,” highlights Bauer. “Transferring our data into cellular systems, we assume that translation of physiological forces into the biochemical signals could be one way to trigger the migration of cancer cells.”

These are key findings to go deeper into the study of tumor invasion and metastasis. “In tumors, stiffening of the stroma results in increased forces that activate signaling pathways via FAK, that strongly promote tumor invasion and metastasis,” says Lietha. The stroma is a tissue that surrounds cancer cells in tumors and affects their progression. Understanding how stroma stiffening and its implication in the activation of adhesion signaling are related to tumor invasion, may provide the basis for the development of therapies targeting this mechanism.

Now that it has been found that the forces generated by the cytoskeleton prompt conformational changes in FAK, further studies are needed to directly measure the biochemical signals in response to mechanical forces.

The study has been funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, the European Regional Development Fund, the Volkswagen Foundation, Worldwide Cancer Research, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, the Klaus Tschira Foundation, the State of Baden-Württemberg (Germany) and the European Research Council.

]]>WISE Seminar | Luz Casalhttps://www.cnio.es/en/news/videos-en/wise-seminar-luz-casal/
Wed, 06 Mar 2019 13:48:33 +0000https://www.cnio.es/?p=78429[In Spanish] The singer and composer Luz Casal visited the CNIO on March 5, 2019, for the celebration of the International Women’s Day organized by the CNIO Women in Science Office in Science (WISE). Luz was interviewed by RNE3 journalist Virginia Díaz. ‘Approximations to a biography’ is the title of this fantastic interview that left […]

[In Spanish] The singer and composer Luz Casal visited the CNIO on March 5, 2019, for the celebration of the International Women’s Day organized by the CNIO Women in Science Office in Science (WISE). Luz was interviewed by RNE3 journalist Virginia Díaz. ‘Approximations to a biography’ is the title of this fantastic interview that left the audience spellbound.

]]>CNIO Arte shows quantum physics with the eyes of an artisthttps://www.cnio.es/en/news/cnio-news/cnio-arte-shows-quantum-physics-with-the-eyes-of-an-artist/
Wed, 20 Feb 2019 17:09:06 +0000https://www.cnio.es/?p=76819A dimly lit table and billiard balls connected by metal sticks, forming a static, stable, hard-to-break molecule, plus loose balls that could roll on an infinite movement. This is the picture chosen by photographer Chema Madoz to illustrate Ignacio Cirac’s science. The two of them worked together in the context of CNIO Arte, the programme […]

]]>A dimly lit table and billiard balls connected by metal sticks, forming a static, stable, hard-to-break molecule, plus loose balls that could roll on an infinite movement. This is the picture chosen by photographer Chema Madoz to illustrate Ignacio Cirac’s science. The two of them worked together in the context of CNIO Arte, the programme launched by the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO) with the support of Fundación Banco Santander to connect internationally renowned scientists and artists. The programme’s 2nd edition, curated by visual artist Amparo Garrido, CNIO Coordinator of Institutional Image and Outreach to Society, was introduced on February 19 with a round table featuring Madoz and Cirac, CNIO Director Maria A. Blasco, promoter of the project, Fundación Banco Santander Director Borja Baselga and art critic Carlos Jiménez.

In her speech, Maria A. Blasco quoted Susan Sontag and her Diaries, where she shared the thought that a new art movement could begin every month just based on the articles published in Scientific American. “Art is a wonderful vessel for science to reach out to society, and this is what CNIO Arte is about. We want to tell society about the importance of science through art,” she said.

Blasco initiated CNIO Arte with the goal of bringing science and art closer together – two separate worlds with many things in common. “Both scientists and artists have to be creative. Both have to venture into the unknown, and to do this they need an open mind, free from prejudice. Given these characteristics, when scientists and artists come together, their interaction can only produce interesting things,” she remarked.

Borja Baselga, moderator of the round table, pointed to other things in common: “Both art and scientific researcher rest on reflection process and the generation of new ideas.”

Along similar lines, Ignacio Cirac, Director of the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics in Garching, Germany, sees a clear intersection between art and science, which play with similar modus operandi.. Also, he added, “art and surrealism can be a source of inspiration for scientists like me, who work on very abstract matters. We want to understand a world we cannot see, hear or touch. So we need to get an idea of this world before we can pose any further questions. In this, art can help us interpret what we are studying and make the right questions. After all, this is what we, scientists, do: rather than giving answers, we ask questions.”

Madoz explained that the meeting he had with Cirac last year helped him to “become aware of those concepts that almost border on the impossible, associated with the idea of quantum physics”. These concepts made Cirac’s work “closer and accessible, in so far as my job is about making the impossible visible out of everyday objects. My challenge was talking about quantum physics or abstract ideas using ordinary objects. What objects could I use that could be easily recognised by me and by my audience, and that could stand for concepts based on which I could create a network of references that are often equivocal or metaphorical?”.

In the end, Madoz choose billiards to illustrate Cirac’s ideas. According to art critic Carlos Jiménez, the metaphor chosen by the artist is based on two concepts that are central to quantum physics: chance and probability. “They are crucial to this scientific discipline, and they also play a key role in Chema’s photograph. Billiards, in fact, can be understood from the perspective of classical mechanics, relativity or quantum mechanics. A game of billiards can be read probabilistically.”

A numbered series of 30 photo engravings were made of Madoz’s picture. They are available for sale at two art galleries, Trinta and Elvira González, and also on the CNIO website. The funds raised will go to cancer research at CNIO, through the CNIO Friends philanthropic initiative.

The work will be exhibited at CNIO until April 12. In addition, coinciding with the season of contemporary art fairs, it will also be presented at ARCOmadrid on 1 March at 6pm (Pavilion 7, Presentations Room), and at the JUSTMAD art fair, where, between February 26 and March 3, the project will be explained at a stand that will exhibit one of Madoz’s photo engravings and a portrait of Cirac.

CNIO Arte was first launched in 2018 with a piece by visual artist Eva Lootz, created after her meetings with molecular biologist Margarita Salas. Besides the funds from the Fundación Banco Santander, the project has the support of the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology – Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, through CNIO & The City.

]]>WISE Seminar | Rosa Monterohttps://www.cnio.es/en/news/videos-en/wise-seminar-rosa-montero/
Tue, 12 Feb 2019 08:34:15 +0000https://www.cnio.es/?p=75623[In Spanish] The journalist and writer Rosa Montero visited the CNIO on February 12, 2019 to give a talk at the seminars organized by the CNIO Women in Science Office (WISE). ‘Women’s Word’is the title of this fantastic seminar.

[In Spanish] The journalist and writer Rosa Montero visited the CNIO on February 12, 2019 to give a talk at the seminars organized by the CNIO Women in Science Office (WISE). ‘Women’s Word’is the title of this fantastic seminar.

]]>CNIO joins EPIC-XS, a consortium for access to European proteomics facilitieshttps://www.cnio.es/en/news/cnio-news/cnio-joins-epic-xs-a-consortium-for-access-to-european-proteomics-facilities/
Fri, 08 Feb 2019 13:45:21 +0000https://www.cnio.es/?p=75037The Proteomics Core Unit of the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO), led by Javier Muñoz, has joined the European Proteomics Initiative Consortium (EPIC-XS), awarded with 10 million euro by the European Union to facilitate the development and sustainability of proteomics exploration to all life science researchers within the European Union. Eighteen European research groups […]

]]>The Proteomics Core Unit of the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO), led by Javier Muñoz, has joined the European Proteomics Initiative Consortium (EPIC-XS), awarded with 10 million euro by the European Union to facilitate the development and sustainability of proteomics exploration to all life science researchers within the European Union.

Eighteen European research groups in the field of mass spectrometry based proteomics research throughout Europe participate in EPIC-XS, funded as part of the Horizon 2020 Work programme and coordinated by Albert Heck, professor of biomolecular mass spectrometry and proteomics at Utrecht University. The project, started on January and will run for a period of four years.

“The creation of this European consortium will allow us to open the doors of cutting-edge technology in proteomics to the scientific community”, says Muñoz. “The impact of this interaction will be high, allowing us to study and understand complex molecular processes involved in cancer and other diseases.”

Proteomics, the large-scale study of proteins and their role in living cells and organisms, is an important technology used to gain insight into the function of biological systems and the roles they play in health and disease. Mass spectrometry based proteomics requires state of the art technology, in-house technical know-how, sustainable and robust workflow practices, successful and correct data interpretation, and data management. Therefore, researchers often depend on dedicated proteomics facilities to get access to proteomics technology.

The EPIC-XS initiative will support researchers, by providing them with access to state of the art proteomics equipment, and allowing them to submit research proposals that make use of the proteomics technology offered by the project. All submitted proposals will be peer-reviewed and the best projects will be selected for access to EPIC-XS. This initiative is a follow-up of the previous European proteomics infrastructure project PRIME-XS, which was completed in 2015. EPIC-XS will again provide access to proteomics facilities throughout Europe, supporting and expanding the European proteomics community through its expertise in proteomics. The provision of courses and training programs, will enable new research communities to be schooled in advanced proteomics technologies.

The EPIC-XS consortium consists of partners throughout Europe which have a proven track record in facilitating national and international research within their institutions. All partners share a common goal; to facilitate the development and sustainability of proteomics exploration to all life science researchers within the European Union.

Starting in the spring of 2019, requests for access to the facilities can be submitted via www.epic-xs.eu.

]]>CNIO releases a video in which the obstacles faced by women in their professional careers are highlighted using the aesthetics of videogameshttps://www.cnio.es/en/news/videos-en/cnio-video-obstacles-women-professional-careers/
Tue, 05 Feb 2019 15:14:13 +0000https://www.cnio.es/?p=75165[Subtitles available in English] Did you know that the images in text books influence students’ marks? That having a majority of male professors makes female university students under-evaluate their activities? Or that the lack of stability and the way of understanding power are key factors for women giving up or coming to a standstill in […]

The International Day of Women and Girls in Science is held on February 11 to call for equal opportunities in STEM careers (science, technology, engineering and mathematical careers). The CNIO & The City educational project by the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO), in collaboration with the Centre’s Women in Science Office (WISE office), has prepared a video which, using the videogame metaphor [subtitles available in English], seeks to raise awareness of the greater number of obstacles that women still face: as they develop their careers from school to the workplace, including the high school and university, they must face prejudices, bias and limitations that trap them between the ‘sticky floor’ and the ‘glass ceiling’.

Furthermore, to boost the dissemination of the video, the CNIO has created the #YoRompoTechoCristal [#IBreakGlassCeiling] social campaign, which encourages people to download the image of the campaign and share it on social networks along with the hashtag, to call for equal opportunities. The image can be downloaded from the video description or via this link.

“We must be aware of the fact that women still have less opportunities. It should be a reason to claim and fight to change things”, says Maria A. Blasco, CNIO Director. Furthermore, once inside this “opportunity”, promotion continues to be complicated for women: “The glass ceiling is a reality. Only 18% of women are at the helm of research centres in our country”, she confirms.

CNIO & The City is the CNIO’s educational and Science Outreach project, with the collaboration of the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology – Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities.

]]>Chema Madoz presents at CNIO his work inspired by the science of Ignacio Cirachttps://www.cnio.es/en/news/cnio-news/chema-madoz-presents-at-cnio-his-work-inspired-by-the-science-of-ignacio-cirac/
Mon, 04 Feb 2019 16:26:47 +0000https://www.cnio.es/?p=74834The physicist Ignacio Cirac and the photographer Chema Madoz met last year in a room at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO) and decided to collaborate. Cirac is one of the world’s most internationally renowned scientists in the field of quantum information; Madoz is known as a craftsman, a builder of visual poetry. What […]

]]>The physicist Ignacio Cirac and the photographer Chema Madoz met last year in a room at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO) and decided to collaborate. Cirac is one of the world’s most internationally renowned scientists in the field of quantum information; Madoz is known as a craftsman, a builder of visual poetry. What did they talk about at that meeting? They might want to reveal it on February 19, at 11am in the CNIO Auditorium, at the presentation of the result of their collaboration: a photograph by Madoz inspired by the science of Cirac.

The encounter between Cirac and Madoz is part of the CNIO Arte programme, an initiative developed by CNIO with the support of Fundación Banco Santander to bring together internationally renowned scientists and artists. This is the second edition of CNIO Arte, and has been curated by the visual artist Amparo Garrido.

In addition to Ignacio Cirac and Chema Madoz, the launch event at CNIO will be attended by the art critic Carlos Jiménez; director of Fundación Banco Santander, Borja Baselga; and Maria A. Blasco, CNIO Director.

As explained by Blasco, “both science and art illuminate the mind, but on few occasions, is science the subject of art. I am convinced that this is not because artists find science uninteresting; perhaps it is simply that artists and scientists need to come together and share their ideas. At CNIO we want to build bridges between science and art, and that is why we invite great artists to reflect on the work of great scientists.”

Since the early 1990s, Chema Madoz has been photographing ideas embodied in objects that he designs and builds, in which irony, humour, or quite simply beauty are conceptually highly charged. In his work, surprise is a trigger that activates within the viewer new ways of looking at reality. Among other accolades, Madoz has received the National Photography Award (2000). He is the first Spanish photographer to whom the Reina Sofia Museum has dedicated a retrospective exhibition. His work also has broad international repercussions.

Ignacio Cirac is one of the most influential international physicists in the field of quantum information. In 1995, aged just 30, together with his colleague Peter Zoller, he published a paper that for the first time explained how a quantum computer could be built – a goal pursued today by researchers around the world, backed by major corporations. Cirac is Director of the Max-Planck Institute for Quantum Optics in Garching, Germany, which he joined in 2001. His accolades include the Blas Cabrera National Research Award; the Frontiers of Knowledge Award; the Prince of Asturias Prize; the Wolf Award; and the Max Planck Medal, among others.

The piece that Chema Madoz has created for CNIO consists of 30 photo engravings, numbered and signed, which may be purchased through the Trinta Gallery, the Elvira Gonzalez Gallery and the CNIO web page. All the money collected from the sale will be used to support cancer research at CNIO, through the CNIO Friends philanthropic initiative.

The work will be exhibited at CNIO from February 19 to April 12. In addition, coinciding with the season of contemporary art fairs, it will also be presented at ARCOmadrid on 1 March at 6pm (Pavilion 7, Presentations Room), and at the JUSTMAD art fair, where, between February 26 and March 3, the project will be explained at a stand that will exhibit one of Madoz’s photo engravings and a portrait of Cirac.

CNIO Arte was first launched in 2018 with a piece by visual artist Eva Lootz, created after her meetings with molecular biologist Margarita Salas. Besides the funds from the Fundación Banco Santander, the project has the support of the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology – Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, through CNIO & The City.

]]>CNIO is the leading cancer research centre in Europe, according to Nature Indexhttps://www.cnio.es/en/news/cnio-news/cnio-is-the-leading-cancer-research-centre-in-europe-according-to-nature-index/
Fri, 01 Feb 2019 17:23:43 +0000https://www.cnio.es/?p=74198The prestigious international Nature Index ranks the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO) top among all the cancer research centres in Europe, in the area of health and life sciences. CNIO has taken this top spot from the Cancer Institute of the Netherlands (NKI), which had been leading this ranking in recent years. In addition, […]

]]>The prestigious international Nature Index ranks the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO) top among all the cancer research centres in Europe, in the area of health and life sciences. CNIO has taken this top spot from the Cancer Institute of the Netherlands (NKI), which had been leading this ranking in recent years. In addition, CNIO is the only Spanish research centre among the top 30 positions.

In terms of its position at a global level, CNIO is the fourth highest-ranking cancer research centre in the area of health and life sciences. It is only surpassed by the three leading centres in the US: MD Anderson (Houston), the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (New York) and the Dana Farber Institute (Boston). In this world ranking, CNIO is again the only Spanish institution in the top 100.

Nature Index compares the scientific production of more than 9,000 research centres around the world published in leading scientific journals. This Index is the most important ranking in terms of assessing the contribution made by each centre to the progress of science within their respective areas of expertise, and it takes into account the quality of scientific production and collaboration established at an institutional, national and local level.

The level (impact) of scientific journals is evaluated by measuring the number of citations received by the articles published (which indicates the relevance of the research conducted in the pertinent area of expertise). The more relevant the researches published in a journal, the greater its impact factor (IF). To name just a few, CNIO publishes in the most important journals in the area of cancer research, such as Cancer Cell (IF 22.8) or The Journal of Clinical Oncology (IF 26), as well as general medical research, such as The New England Journal of Medicine (IF 79), and any area of research, such as Nature (41.5).

In this respect, CNIO has been generating more and more high quality scientific production in recent years, and indeed 2018 was the third year in which the Centre published an increasing number of studies in peer-reviewed journals with an IF greater than 10 – led by the Centre or in collaboration with other institutions.

“One of our priorities is to continue producing knowledge of excellence in the area of cancer”, explains Maria A. Blasco, director of CNIO. “We are very proud when we see that, in spite of the difficulties we have in our country to develop high-level science, CNIO is still ranked alongside the best institutions in the world. Our efforts are rewarded with esteemed recognition such as the Nature Index”.

]]>‘CNIO Friends’ makes funds available for hiring four young researchers to look for new strategies against cancer at CNIOhttps://www.cnio.es/en/news/cnio-friends/cnio-friends-makes-funds-available-for-hiring-four-young-researchers/
Thu, 31 Jan 2019 15:03:51 +0000https://www.cnio.es/?p=74100The Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO) will hire four scientists through the International Postdoctoral Contract Programme ‘CNIO Friends’. The newly hired researchers have been selected from more than 45 applicants. “We are really happy with the reception the Programme is having, especially considering it is comparatively new,” said CNIO Director, Maria A. Blasco. ‘Applications […]

]]>The Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO) will hire four scientists through the International Postdoctoral Contract Programme ‘CNIO Friends’. The newly hired researchers have been selected from more than 45 applicants. “We are really happy with the reception the Programme is having, especially considering it is comparatively new,” said CNIO Director, Maria A. Blasco. ‘Applications were submitted by candidates from all over the world.”

The winners are: Rubén Martínez, who will work in the Kinases, Protein Phosphorylation and Cancer Group, headed by Iván Plaza; María Moreno, who will do her research in the Genome Integrity and Structural Biology Group, led by Rafael Fernández Leiro; Neibla Priego, who will continue working on her projects in the Brain Metastasis Group, led by Manuel Valiente; and Sarita Saraswati, who will carry out research in the Telomeres and Telomerase Group, headed by Maria A. Blasco. Over the next two years, these four scientists will look for new strategies to combat cancer.

CNIO, leading monograhic cancer research centre in Europe

CNIO Friends was launched by the end of 2014 with the aim of raising funds to attract new research talent at CNIO, one of the top cancer research centres as shown in rankings published by SCImago and Nature Index. Recently, Nature Index, which evaluates the scientific publications by over 9,000 research centres from all over the world, ranked CNIO at the top of the list among monographic cancer research centres in Europe in the healthcare and life sciences sector. CNIO is the only Spanish research centre among the top 30, and stands fourth at the global level – the only Spanish centre among the top 100 worldwide. Moreover, according to SCImago, CNIO is atop the list of the health research centres in Spain (SCImago, 2019).

The CNIO Friends community is made of almost 1,200 members, who have given more than €1.6M to CNIO, not only through donations, but also through legacies and inheritancies from people who choose to include CNIO in their wills, so their assets can contribute to improve cancer diagnosis and treatment.

Their generosity has enabled CNIO to launch the International Postdoctoral Contract Programme CNIO Friends, a high-level competition open to scientists from all over the world. To date, up to seven scientists have joined the CNIO groups thanks to these contracts, to study paediatric brain tumours or the use of big data or nanotechnology in cancer research, among other projects. At CNIO, they carry out postdoctoral stays in an environment characterised by scientific excellence, and the Centre can attract new talent.

Two of these contracts are supported by Fundación Juegaterapia through the profit made by selling the Baby Pelones dolls. Another one is actually a predoctoral contract named ‘María Oliva-CNIO Friends’, that was the result of an individual donation for supporting a student to complete their PhD degree at CNIO.

From kidney and liver cancer to brain metastasis

With the four new additions, there are now 11 researchers who have been hired by CNIO through the Contract Programme CNIO Friends:

Rubén Martínez (1978, Mexico) obtained his doctoral degree from University College London (UK), where he went back after doing postdoctoral stays at internationally renowned centres like the London Research Institute-Cancer Research UK (LRI-CRUK) or the Medical Research Council-Protein Phosphorylation and Ubiquitylation Unit (MRC-PPU) in Dundee (Scotland). Currently, he is doing research at Institut Pasteur de Lille (France). Now, at the CNIO Kinases, Protein Phosphorylation and Cancer Group, he will study the changes in the RET oncogene made by such biochemical processes as phosphorylation and ubiquitylation in lung and breast cancer, as well as in neuroblastoma, a type of cancer that develops in nerve tissue outside of the central nervous system. Martínez will pursue a detective investigation not only into the biochemical pathways that affect RET activity in the above-mentioned types of tumour but also into other proteins that usually interact with it. He will use mouse and fly cancer models to find substances capable of inhibiting RET and try to improve the treatments available today.

María Moreno (1981, Spain), who worked at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), had also worked at CNIO between 2015 and 2018. Later on, she moved on to do research at the Severo Ochoa-CSIC Molecular Biology Centre. Her scientific career has been focused on the role of proteins in cancer progression. Soon, she will be working in the CNIO Genome Integrity and Structural Biology Group, doing research into the 3D structure of these proteins using state-of-the-art techniques like cryogenic electron microscopy, a field where CNIO is one of the main Spanish Centres thanks to its capabilities, instrumentation and experience. Cryogenic electron microscopy has been considered by the journal Nature as one of the revolutionary technologies in the field of molecular biology in 2019. Currently, Moreno is studying the structure of CAD, a protein involved in the formation of the DNA bricks. The overexpression of CAD occurs in all types of cancer; consequently, understanding how gene mutations affect CAD structure can help find and develop cancer treatments in the future.

Neibla Priego (1987, Spain) obtained her PhD in Molecular Biology and Biomedicine from the Complutense University of Madrid, following two research stays at the Salamanca Cancer Research Centre (Spain) and KU Leuven (Belgium). Then she began her postdoctoral stay in the Brain Metastasis Group at CNIO, where she studied the molecular basis of metastasis to the brain and its progression. In June 2018, Priego was the author of an article published by Nature Medicine that describes how a compound called silibinin can be used to reduce brain metastasis in mice and patients inhibiting the STAT3 transcription factor in astrocytes. STAT3 is known to be a regulator of brain metastasis progression. The CNIO Friends contract awarded to Priego will enable her explore the potential therapeutic and diagnostic use of her findings. She will study the combination of STAT3 inhibitors with immunotherapies and look for biomarkers to predict patient response to this therapy.

Sarita Saraswati (1983, India) has worked at King Saud University (Saudi Arabia) and the Spanish National Centre for Cardiovascular Research (CNIC). In 2018, she joined the CNIO Telomeres and Telomerase Group, where she studied the role of telomere dysfunction (a telomere is a region at the end of each chromosome that protects the end of chromosomes from deterioration and is related to aging) in the origin of kidney and liver fibrosis, which causes degeneration of these organs and may lead to cancer in its advanced stages. Thanks to CNIO Friends, Saraswati will continue working with the Telomeres and Telomerase Group, creating new mice models to study the characteristics of liver cancer and chronic kidney disease in humans. She will study how telomere dysfunction begins, with the aim of finding new therapies for fibrosis and kidney and liver cancer.

Any individual, business or association can support the cancer research programmes carried out at CNIO, thus having an impact on the advancement of knowledge of cancer and helping find new treatments. Donating can be as simple as clicking a button on the CNIO website: https://www.cnio.es/en/cnio-friend/. Donations qualify for a number of fiscal incentives that are described on the site.